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Flashback: The Unmaking of Selene

Selene had run until her lungs gave out.

The trees had been silent witnesses, the wind an indifferent howl. She had collapsed in a patch of blackened moss deep in the northern forest, sobbing into her palms.

Why wasn’t I enough? She thought time and time again.

She had packed her things to leave, hoping he'd stop her, hoping he'd tell her to stay and that he wanted her. But he didn't.

He didn't.

Instead, he hugged her goodbye. He fucking hugged her goodbye.

She had smiled, told him goodbye too, pretended like she wasnt breaking from inside out. Stupid Bavanda, she didn't know what he was truly worth. She was messing with him, and yet she couldn't let someone else have him.

The pain turned inward. Her heart caved, her soul screaming for someone—anyone—to take the weight.

And something answered.

A shadow, ancient and hungry, slipped through the trees like smoke. It whispered her name like it already knew her story.

“I can give you a chance,” it said. “To be loved. To be seen. To become what he needs...”

She didn’t ask what it was. She only asked, “Will it make the pain stop?”

“Yes. But only if you let go of yourself.”

Selene, broken and hollow, whispered, “Take it. I have no use anymore.”

It did, without hesitation.

Her bones cracked. Her skin shimmered. Memories that weren’t hers were burned into her mind. She screamed as her soul was twisted and spliced, her heart carved out and replaced with obsession.

She rose again with a new face—Bavanda’s face—and only one desire left in her cursed heart:

Be who he loves. Take her place.

***

Back to reality

Selene screamed now—a shriek of betrayal and fury. Her body glitched and surged with shadow and flame, no longer able to hold the mask. Her limbs cracked, her face flickered through different phases of Bavanda before the illusion finally shattered.

The courtroom watched in horror as her form melted into a twisted, lupine figure—too long in the limbs, too dark in the eyes, her fur matted with pain and power.

Baron stepped forward slowly, horror dawning on his face. “Dear Moon…” he rasped. “It’s not Bavanda. It’s Selene.”

Selene’s form pulsed with corrupt energy, trembling with rage and rejection. Her voice warped and shrieked:

“You’ll regret choosing her! All of you!”

And then, with a roar, the walls exploded.

From behind her, black tendrils erupted through stone, and creatures made of nightmare surged into the room—wolves with no eyes, hounds with gaping mouths and skeletal flanks, shadows with burning limbs.

The pack scrambled into battle positions. Rayna and Gina raised their swords. Steve charged toward the frontline. Baron shielded Avynna with his body. Loco took a blade from the floor and stepped beside Bavanda.

Selene hovered above them, twisted and glorious in her monstrosity.

“You wanted the heir,” she roared. “Then face what she brings!”

Bavanda, standing tall in the silver light that clung to her skin, clenched her fists, her voice clear and steady.

“I am Bavanda,” she said. “Daughter of Avynna and Baron. Chosen of the Moon. And I’m taking my pack back.”

The beasts screamed, and the war began.

The chamber ignited with chaos.

Shadows burst from every crack in the walls like spilled ink come alive. Their snarls reverberated like thunder in the pack’s ears.

At the center of it all stood Bavanda, her silver aura burning brighter with each breath.

“Form up!” Steve roared, blades gleaming. He surged into the fray with a pack of elite warriors behind him. Rayna and Gina flanked him, blades drawn, forming a protective arc around the Alphas.

Avynna, phased but still standing, grabbed Baron’s hand. “She’s our daughter,” she whispered fiercely, “we have to believe.”

“I do,” Baron said, voice choked. “I always did.”

At the heart of the storm, Bavanda faced Selene, the last remnant of heartbreak, darkness, and deceit.

“You were given a choice, Selene,” Bavanda said. “But you made it about you. About taking what didn't belong to you. You let yourself become their weapon.”

Selene hovered above the court like a fallen angel, eyes pitch and blazing, her once-delicate face stretched in fury.

“I became who you refused to be! They hated you. They doubted you. They loved me! I gave them someone stronger—someone willing to act!”

“You gave them a lie.”

Selene screamed, and black fire exploded outward. Bavanda raised her hands and countered with a burst of moonlight, silver and blinding. The shockwave split the room. Warriors were thrown back. Shadow beasts disintegrated under the holy light.

Loco ran toward the battle, carving through two beasts that lunged for Rayna. He reached Bavanda’s side, panting, blood smeared on his jaw. “You don’t have to do this alone,” he said.

“I know,” she answered softly. “But she does.”

Selene descended.

Their bodies crashed together in a spiral of dark and divine. They collided across the hall—fists, claws, and spirit magic swirling like opposing storms. Bavanda moved like water, her light searing through Selene’s corrupted flesh. But Selene fought like something that had already died, someone left with nothing left to lose.

“You’re fighting the wrong war,” Bavanda hissed, slamming her palm into Selene’s chest and casting her back with a burst of light.

“I am the war!” Selene screeched, eyes wild. “They’ll never accept you! They’ll never forget what you were—”

“They’ll see and remember who I’ve become.”

Selene conjured a spear of dark fire and hurled it with such intense rage. Bavanda caught it midair, spun, and shattered it with her bare hands. Her light surged in the room, forcing every shadow creature to recoil. Steve and Rayna pressed the attack, cutting through the ranks. Gina roared, decapitating a nightmare hound.

Selene shrieked as her form began to tremble. Cracks split her skin, leaking flame and shadow.

“I did this for love!” she cried. “For you, Loco!”

Loco met her eyes. There was sorrow in them. “You were a girl with a heart once, Selene. But she’s not here anymore.”

Selene froze. That hesitation was enough.

Bavanda charged.

Their final clash echoed like a scream across the chamber, light and shadow colliding in a massive wave. The blast blew the roof clean off the courtroom, revealing a night sky thick with stars.

When the dust settled, Bavanda stood in the center of a crater, breath ragged, arms trembling.

Selene lay at her feet.

Her body flickered, no longer twisted, but reverted to her true form: a young wolf woman with wide, broken eyes.

The last of the shadows had been defeated. Warriors breathed in ragged unison. The pack—bloody, bruised, and soul-weary—stood among the broken remains of their home. But there was no victory in the air. The silence that filled the air instead was deafening.

Selene stood in the center of it all—cracked and barely holding form, her face flickering between shadow and skin, pain and madness. Her body trembled, as if caught in a tug-of-war between what she had been and what she had become.

“I never wanted to be her,” she whispered, tears falling, her voice no longer distorted, it was her own. “I just wanted… to be loved.”

Loco stepped forward, cautiously, eyes soft. “Selene… you were loved. Maybe not in the way you wanted, but…”

She looked at him, wide-eyed, like a child on the edge of collapse. “Say it,” she rasped. “Say you loved me. Or hated me. Anything. Just…something to hold onto while I…” her voice broke. “...while I die.”

There was a tremble in her limbs, magic sparking like volatile lightning beneath her skin.

Bavanda took a step forward, her voice trembling but firm. “Selene… you can still choose. This doesn’t have to be the end. The darkness is feeding on your pain, but if you fight it…”

Selene didn’t hear her.

Her gaze fell on Avynna, who had come closer to stand beside her daughter. Regal even in exhaustion, Avynna looked upon Selene not with hatred, but with compassion.

“You remind me,” Avynna said gently, “of myself once, when I was lost. But I found the light again. You can too. You’re not too far gone.”

Selene bit her lips as her figure quivered. “No one loved me. Not my mother, she abandoned me. And my father never spared me a glance once.” A painful whimper escaped her lips. "How could you all blame me for wanting the love I never got?"

"Selene…” A voice sounded through the chaos all of a sudden. Every eye turned. It was Thalos, Selene's father. The pack held their breaths.

Thalos was injured. He had been partly unconscious when Selene's disguise faded, and now, he couldn't be more shocked. What was he seeing? His daughter did all of this?

He took one shaky step, and he was standing at the centre of everyone else. “Selene… Selene, my daughter. What have you become?”

Silence settled like a dark cloak of night over the almost fallen room.

"Selene… you said you'd be returning to the highlands. What…what happened to you?” He continued.

Selene scoffed. For a second, the pack thought there were tears in her eyes. “What now? You're going to pretend you love me now? You're going to pretend to forget that all you ever did was whip me and lock me up? You're going to pretend that you didn't sell me away when you had the tiniest opportunity?"

Thalos stuttered. “Selene… I… I did everything out of love. I…” The guilt on his face was evident for even a blind person to see.

Avynna stepped forward, whispering something calmly to Thalos. She must have said, "Let me handle her.”

She was wrong. She couldn't handle her.

At least, she tried.

"Selene…" Avynna began, taking a very risky step forward. “I know life was rough for you, but if you give us a chance, I promise we can make it right. Your father is sorry for everything, and we… we're sorry we never noticed. You were such a sweet girl, you can't let the darkness overtake you.”

For one brief second, Selene’s form faltered. Then her eyes burned black. “
You liars!”

A sudden blast of dark magic surged from her palm, too fast, and vicious. It struck Avynna directly in the chest.

The world slowed.

“NO!” Bavanda screamed.